We are not aware of the amount of personal data that circulates out there and that we continuously feed with the use of cards or on-line purchases, not to mention those we provide in social networks and when visiting the websites we visit for professional matters or for entertainment. In "the cloud", a concept as undefined as it is disturbing, there is data on what we read, how we dress, what our eating habits are, where we prefer to travel, what our salary is, savings habits and investment capacity, family situation, religious opinions, sports, political preferences, what we do on our vacations or free time, medical reports and much more information. If you put it all together and relate it, they can get to know us better than we know ourselves.
The whole set of techniques that process and manage this huge amount of data that allows us to know, predict and guide the behavior of individuals or social groups constitutes the world of data processing. Big DataThe concept has been written about a lot, almost always to qualify it as invasive, although the techniques are ethically neutral, their qualification will come from the use that is made of them.
Brotherhoods can also use techniques similar to those of Big Data. Here the information to be handled is not only that provided by the database of each brotherhood regarding the brothers, from which information can be extracted to serve them effectively in the fulfillment of their mission, there is much more interesting information for the brotherhoods that is not protected or encrypted and is easily accessible. We only have to raise our heads and observe the environment, which provides us with continuous information, we only have to identify it, analyze it, draw conclusions and define action plans.
What data does observation of our social reality offer? After years of government without a defined ideology, the terrain has been occupied by relativism, disguised as political correctness. This manifests itself in gender ideology, exacerbated nationalism, abortion/euthanasia, egalitarianism by law, educational manipulation and cultural terrorism, stateization of the economy and fiscal policy that leads to an impoverishing welfare state that limits personal freedom. We could go on adding more observable data, but I think this is enough.
What should the brotherhoods do with all these notes, what should be the criteria for analyzing this Big Data and making proposals for action?
A first task is to identify the common thread of all this apparently unconnected data, which converge in a deeply asphyxiating and conservative ideology, clinging to an idealized past, and incapable of making a leap forward; clinging to obsolete and failed doctrinal principles, obsessed by the past, incapable of preparing for the future. The next step is to strip it of its false progressive veneer. The bewilderment of the official left in the face of the publication of the Fairby Ana Iris Simón, an author considered a "progre", in which she presented, with nostalgia, the traditional values lived in her town and in her family, simple, hard-working and left-wing people, and dismantled the myths of salon progressivism.
The analysis of these data shows us a society in need of a model of thinking that is articulated and centered on truth, on the person. This is everyone's task; the cultural battle is not only fought in parliaments, in the media or in universities, but also in civil society, of which the brotherhoods are part. These have to be not only places of activities and feelings, but also doctrinally and spiritually habitable spaces, with social projection.
A serene and well-founded society is one that has a project based on ideas and is capable of making risky decisions that contemplate a distant horizon. Neither in society nor in the brotherhood can decisions be made for the short term, seeking immediate results, which are incoherent and contradictory, because they do not respond to a model of thought, but to the opportunity of the moment.
For this it is necessary, as we said, to study the environment, identify the social keys and apply criteria of analysis based on the principles of the Social Doctrine of the Church, with its own criteria, without being carried away by the relativist current. The brotherhoods must dare to be progressive, believe in freedom, and actively participate in the transformation of society.
D. in Business Administration. Director of the Instituto de Investigación Aplicada a la Pyme. Eldest Brother (2017-2020) of the Brotherhood of the Soledad de San Lorenzo, in Seville. He has published several books, monographs and articles on brotherhoods.
